.Dd KOCHGEN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm kochgen
.Nd Koch training generator
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl h
.Op Fl M Ar wrlenmax
.Op Fl m Ar wrlenmin
.Op Fl n Ar nwrs
.Op Fl o Ar ofile
.Ar charset
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
generates a list of words suitable for CW operator training using
the Koch method.
The intended use case of this program is for its output to be piped
to
.Xr cwsnd 1
for Koch method practice.
.Pp
A number of words will be generated with the supplied
.Ar charset .
The list will be separated by newlines.
.Pp
.Ar charset
is a string parameter consisting of all characters in the desired
character set.  For example, for the traditional first lesson in Koch
training,
.Ar charset
can be set to 'km'.  Characters can be given more weight by
duplicating the letter in the
.Ar charset
string: for example, 'kmrss' would favor the letter 's' in the word
generation.
.Pp
The
.Ar charset
parameter is mandatory and must be the last parameter supplied in the
command line.
.Pp
The available options are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl h
Show help message.
.It Fl M Ar wrlenmax
Sets the maximum number of letters in a word to
.Ar wrlenmax .
Defaults to 5.
.It Fl m Ar wrlenmin
Sets the minimum number of letters in a word to
.Ar wrlenmin .
Defaults to 5.
.It Fl n Ar nwrs
Sets the number of words to be generated.  Defaults to 50.
(To roughly set the duration of practice,
set it to the duration in minutes times the effective/Farnsworth wpm.)
.It Fl o Ar ofile
Writes a copy of the output to
.Ar ofile .
.Sh EXAMPLES
First lesson: student to copy 50 five-letter words with only
K's and M's.
.Pp
.Dl "$ kochgen km | cwsnd"
.Pp
Second lesson: to add 'r' to the character set.
Also generates the answer key.
.Pp
.Dl "$ kochgen -o anskey.txt kmr | cwsnd"
.Pp
Variant of the first lesson: vary the word lengths between 2 and 6
characters.
.Pp
.Dl "$ kochgen -m 2 -M 6 km | cwsnd"
.Sh ABOUT KOCH METHOD
Many CW operators swear by Koch method; that is, if they can relearn
code from scratch. Apparently it works well in developing neural
pathways required for decoding code at speeds above 15 words per
minute.
.Pp
Koch training works by exposing CW trainees to a subset of the
standard Morse character set, played at full speed right from the
start of the training.  The training starts with only two characters
(traditionally 'M' and 'K') in the character set.  Words are generated
from the characters in the set, then played at full speed.  When the
student can reliably copy at 90 percent accuracy or above, one
character is added to the set.  The training progresses until the
student learns the entire character set.
.Pp
For self-paced study, especially when aiming to become conversational
in Morse code, mental copying (i.e. no typing/writing) is also a skill
worth practicing.  In this case, the accuracy assessment must be done
on the basis of honesty.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr morse 6 ,
.Xr cwsnd 1
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Samuel Wirajaya